Southern State of Mind
by MysticalTwilightQueen59
Summary: Maisie Whitlock, Twin sister of Jasper and her family, her fahter, two little brothers and sister are not normal vampires. They are a different kind. Maisie was a nurse during the American Civil War. She lost her one true love, her husband in the war, will she ever be reunited with him?
1. Chapter 1

Living forever is not all fun and games. Watching everyone that you know die right before your eyes, and knowing you'll never die often gets depressing. However, it did make it a little easier with my family here. My two younger brothers and my younger sister made it a lot easier to cope with spending eternity on earth. However, my twin brother Jasper, died back in January of 1863, and I missed him, and my mom who died in childbirth with my youngest sister in 1857, and the baby, whom my father named Virginia, died a couple days after her birth.

We are very aware of "cold ones" that roam the earth, but unlike these vampires, we don't feed from humans. Rather, we rely sorely on chlorophyll, which is plant blood, and the sun. Those two elements are vital to our survival. It's rather easy to pick a cold one right out of a crowd, the pale skin, the gold eyes (or red eyes), the way they stay out of the sun and their cold skin. For us, we blend in with humans, when we are turned, we retain our human qualities, such as our eye and skin colors. Although, we are just as fast and strong as they are.

How we get turned is a bit tricky, and if I didn't know this firsthand, I wouldn't believe it myself. We are turned by a vampire plant. That bites you. Or, being injected with the plant's properties also does the same thing, however, you have to be near death for the DNA and RNA to alternate. If the person isn't on the brink of death, then it doesn't work, and it just neutralizes in the person's bloodstream. That's why we're known as Sol Vampires, or Reverse Vampires.

I sighed as I got up to get ready. All of our stuff had been packed up, and my brother, Silas and I are moving today with the horses from California to (finally) Virginia, and our father, Henry and Genie would be moving in the next two weeks, as they wrap the last of the stuff up and tied up all loose ends. It was Christmas day, but at least the roads would be clear enough for us to get through.

Dad had a job secured in Winchester, Virginia, so that's where we were moving to, well, at least not far from it, at first he didn't want to accept it, because of Andrew, but I assured him that I would be then. We are actually moving to the old family plantation, about half an hour away, where my dad grew up before moving to Texas. My dad was born in raised in Front Royal, Virginia, the property was that of what was used as a hospital in October 1863. The whole property total, was about 116 acres, it's not used for farming anymore, so it was pretty easy to upkeep. It would be 41 hour, 2,732 mile trip, and my brother and I were transporting 9 horses, it shouldn't be too hard, as I would have Silas with me to help out.

I got dressed in a pair of jeans, a black long sleeved shirt and pulled a camo hoodie on as well as my Dixie flag cowboy boots. I put part of my long curly hair in a crown knot and left the rest running down my back. I grabbed the last of my bags and put them in my dark gray 2011 Toyota tundra, before backing it up to hitch the 6 horse trailer to my truck before making sure each stall in the trailer had sawdust and hay on the floor, a hay net in reach of the horses, and that the vents were fully open. In the back of the trailer, I made sure that I had buckets of food and water, a horse first aid kit (per horse), grooming kit (per horse), and tack and rugs.

I went to the stables to get the first horse to load, which was mine, a Quarter Horse named Total Rebellion, but I called him Rebel for short. He has a dark brown coat and some white markings on his legs. I had an orange camo halter on him and a camo leading rope that I used to get him on the trailer, before closing his pen, and headed back for the next one.

The next horse was also a quarter horse, a solid black horse named Southern Legacy, whom we called Legacy. He had a dark blue halter, and I took the black leading rope that was hanging beside his stall and got him onto the trailer, before going back for Dixie, whom was an American Saddle Bred, and she was a gray and palomino mix. Then I went back for the fourth horse, Rover, an appaloosa, who had the leopard coat pattern (white body with black spots).

Silas brought out two horses, his, a Rocky Mountain horse named Bullet, and a quarter horse, Midnight Dances. Henry was helping out and brought Casanova, his American Saddlebred, and Genie's Paint Horse that she named Tango. I went and got dad's quarter horse Morning Glory. After each of the nine were loaded and settled, I closed and secured the trailer door. Then I went to go and find my father to let him know that we were leaving.

"Hey, Daddy, I have the horses loaded up, and Silas and I are leaving now." I said.

Dad nodded. "Okay honey, call us when you get there and make sure you stop for breaks." He said. "An can you take the dog with y'all?

I nodded. "Sure thing." I told him before going to hunt Silas down. I opened the back door of my truck and Gunner (the chocolate lab) hopped in. I made sure that I had their papers in a folder on the passenger's seat and my I.D nearby, in reach and drove out of the drive way after Silas was settled. I stopped in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and finally in Roanoke, Virginia for breaks for the horses. Now it was just 2 hours and 46 minutes before I got to my destination.


	2. Chapter 2

Once we reached the house, we got the horses unloaded and released them into the pasture. I cleaned out the trailer before backing it up into the large carport for the trailers and unhitching before parking my truck into the driveway. By this time, it was nearly two hours later. We already had some hay here, but it was agreed that we would go for the horse feed store and then come back home to get the stalls set up.

"C'mon." I told my brother and he nodded and hopped into the passenger's seat of my truck. I got in and drove to the nearest feed store and we got one of those flat carts with a little basket and we bought the following some stall hay and softwood pellets for the stalls. We also bought feed and treat nuggets as well as hoof care products and shampoo and other grooming products. We paid for everything and loaded it up in the truck bed and went home.

Once back home, we put everything away and put the food in the correct buckets and labeled them. We were done about 5 hours later, around 6 in the evening. But now, we had our bedrooms to unpack. Silas ordered out a pizza for just the night, and after we ate, we headed to our separate bedrooms to unpack and get set up and settled in. It didn't take me too long to make up my queen-sized bed and put all my clothes away or put all of my books on my bookshelf. The bittersweet part was unpacking and putting away my photo albums, a lot of which Andrew was in.

Andrew took part in 19 major battles, some of the most famous ones being Galveston, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Texas Calvary. We didn't see each other that often, but we did whenever we could, and that was enough for me. We weren't always at the same place at the same time. He was ordered wherever he was needed. We did however, were in some of the same battles.

Both battles of Galveston, Sabine Pass II and Chickamauga. And also a few other minor scuffles, but nothing too bad. I wasn't there when he died, a part of me was grateful that I wasn't, I knew I probably wouldn't be able to handle it. I could barely handle it when he came to me, injured, needing to be patched up, which was probably pretty often, nothing major, all minor, just a few scratches here and there or some cuts. One of more concern one time was when he was grazed by a bullet, and another was when he was wounded in the battle of Gettysburg, when he was shot in the shoulder, they had to fish out the bullet, patch him up and sent him home until he was needed for Sabine Pass II in September and we were officially (and finally) married July 17th, 1863.

 ** _-Flashback-_**

 ** _Battle of Sabine Pass II - Texas_**

 _It was September 8th, in the year of 1863 and we were in Sabine Pass, for the second battle of this place and the battle wasn't over yet, but it had ceased for the night. All of the soldiers turned patients were stable for now and most where sleeping._

 _I was in the main tent, reading by the candlelight, even though it wasn't quite dark yet, although the sun had just gone down and the fires and cannons were coming to a slow pace, before they stopped altogether, singling the end of battle for the night, but I knew as soon as the sun rose the very next morning, the battle would start up once again._

 _And it wasn't long before Andrew found me and looked at me, sheepishly. I saw his face before his arm, "What did you do?" I asked, and then noticed his arm, where his arm and shirt were stained with blood. "What happened?" I asked, putting my book aside and stood up._

 _"I uh, I dodge a bullet, or at least I thought I did, apparently not." He stated, rubbing the back of his head._

 _I sighed. "C'mon then." I took his hand and led my husband to where we kept the medical supplies. I then had him to sit down on a stool after having him remove his coat and his shirt, so I could better assess his injury._

 _Andrew removed his outer coat and then his shirt, so I could tend to his arm, before sitting down. The wound was on his bicep, and upon further investigation of it, I found that the bullet simply grazed him._

 _"Well, the bullet only grazed you, so that's good." I murmured, and he nodded. I cleaned the area around the wound up. "Though must you always do this and worry me half to death every time I see you?" I shot him a look when he chuckled and bandaged his wound and secured it._

 _"_ _But you're good to go now." I told him. "Just don't let me see you back here with another injury."_

 _He chuckled again. "Thank you." He stood up from the stool after buttoning his shirt back up and wrapped his arms around me and kissed me softly and gently as I hugged him back._

 **-Back to present-**

At that time, I had no idea that in less than a year, my husband would be killed, and life as we know would be forever changed. Shaking my head, I sighed and went to bed.


	3. Chapter 3

Our father, Henry and Genie arrived a few days later, and then we got everything else set up. Dad would be working at the hospital on base, as a trauma surgeon, as he usually did, and most of us were being sent to school. Silas would be a senior, Henry a sophomore, and Genie, a freshman. I managed to get out of going to school by doing some work here, on the farm, and doing my "research," as I often helped dad with writing history books.

"Genie!" I called to my sister.

"Yeah Maisie?"

"Care to go to the store with me?" I asked her. "We need groceries and stuff."

She nodded. "Sure." She followed me out to the truck and we headed to the Sam's Club, the nearest being in Sterling, which is about an hour from Front Royal. We didn't normally come here, but to get us started out with the basics helped us out a lot, until we didn't need to get a lot of stuff.

We picked up everything that we needed, loaded up the truck and came back home. I had the boys help me unload, while Genie got started on supper before dad would get home.

This was going to be a long week, dad had called to inform us about meeting a certain Dr. Cullen and found out some interesting information about my twin have been changed into a cold one. And we were meeting up with them this weekend to catch up and share stories and all of this stuff. It should make for a very interesting conversation.

I hadn't seen my twin since late 1862, and because he was my twin, I was closer to him than I was with any of my siblings growing up. I hope that it wouldn't be too awkward or anything, he didn't even know of Andrew's death, so I'm sure old scars will be opened too, but there's nothing we can do about that and just face the music and move on.

Hell, my brother didn't even know that I was married, but he knew I was engaged, so there would be a lot of catching up to do. After I had gotten married, my last name was sort of hyphened, since we were married in the middle of the war, and I just used Whitlock now because it was much easier to deal with, being my whole family's last name.

Once dad got home, we all sat down for supper, and dad answered all the questions we had about the Cullen's, which wasn't much, due to him not knowing about much.

We just mainly caught up onto day-to-day life and what's new, and what Henry, Silas and Genie would be expecting at school for their first day tomorrow. We also just watched a bit of TV and then watched the news report, to keep an eye on the weather, we were to expect some snow in the next few days, but in no danger of it tomorrow.

My father soon had to go to bed, as he would have a long night shift tomorrow night. Genie and the boys soon followed pursuit. But I sat there a few more moments before finally getting up, heading up to my bedroom.

I shook my head as I got my shower and changed into a pair of dark gray Adidas sweatpants and a dark gray thermal built ford tough long-sleeved shirt. I was just going to climb into bed and go to sleep, but something compelled me to grab the small box where I held all of the letters that I'd ever received from Andrew.

I sighed as I took the box and climbed under the warm covers of my bed and cut my TV off and flipped through the pile of envelopes, until I found the date that I wanted, July of 1863, he had it dated for July 4th, to be precise, just right after the Battle of Gettysburg. I took the letter out of its envelope to read it again, no telling how many times I kept reading these letters over and over and over again. On the days that I found myself missing him the most, I've noticed I tend to go to the box of letters to read what he'd written, his handwriting somewhat brought me comfort during these depressing times. I received this particular letter about a week before Andrew returned back to me.

 _Maisie,_

 _I have survived yet another battle, although not unscratched, I have been shot in the shoulder, they were able to remove the bullet, but I cannot engage in anymore fighting until it completely heals, as my father would say, I've been sent to timeout, as if I were a kid again._

 _Even though he doesn't really show it, I know he worries, as do you, I know. They're sending me back to Texas to recuperate before I'm to get my next orders, until then, my men and I have been assigned back to Texas until we're needed once again._

 _Gettysburg was a living nightmare, especially what they called Devil's den, so many men from the Texas regiments, sadly, will not be returning home to their families. Many good men, both in gray and blue have been loss, if only this cruel war will end soon._

 _Although it was very good to see my father, and see that he's doing well, despite the circumstances, I'm much anxious to get back to you my love. Since March is a long time, and I hope things aren't too hectic back in Texas._

 _I'm to be released back sometime in the next couple days, and I want to make a request of pushing the wedding date forward, with seeing all the wounded men and those that have died, I've learned that life is too short and I don't want to wait much longer or risk anymore time, in case something does happen to me, that I don't make it back to you._

 _Forever yours,_

 _Andrew P._

I sighed as I put the letter back in the envelope and back in the box and away again. We were married, barely a week after his return, my father understood where he was coming from, and I didn't mind not having a traditional wedding (besides, I didn't really like the traditional anyway), after all, Andrew was correct, life was short, and my father knew that, as he tried to save countless of young men's lives, and a lot of them died, so he allowed for the marriage to take place on such a short notice.

We had been married for almost 2 months, before the next battle took place, the rest of July and all of August having been battle free, at least for us, until September 8th, when the second Battle of Sabine Pass took place, he wasn't very far from me then either, as our medical regiment had orders to attend to that battle and then the next one with the Calvary.

The Battle of Chickamauga took place from September 19-20th, and September 21, 1963, we all traveled back to Virginia, where both my parents were originally from, as my father was being assigned there to make a field hospital from one of the houses on my family's lands. And even though Andrew had numerous different battles to go to, he always returned to me whenever he could. Most of the last battles of his took place in Virginia, with the exception of the Battle of Monocacy, which took place in Maryland. Each time he returned, it was normally brief, like for one night or two, if he had any business to attend to in town.

The longest he stayed was Christmas of 1863, when his father and he joined me, my parents, brothers and sister for Christmas for a couple nights, and his father had to leave, he stayed, though he was gone for some parts of the day, after the New Year, I didn't see him much, we still exchanged a bunch of letters though during the times when we could see each other, that's all we could do. I sighed as I cut my lamp off and went to sleep, to energize for the events tomorrow would bring.


	4. Chapter 4

_I sighed as I finished up tending to the last of the patients for the day and headed to read outside on the steps of the porch. It was December 20th, and I hadn't seen Andrew since after we arrived here in Front Royal after leaving the Chickamauga battle field in Georgia, back in September. It's been nearly 3 months since I'd last seen him, but I did get regular letters from him, and being here with my family and grandparents and doing my job has kept me pretty busy, which made the months just fly by, though there was those days, when I had free time that I had no clue of how to use._

 _He and his father were due for a visit though, they told my grandparents that they'd be around for the holiday, which I supposed was this one, hopefully._

 _Daddy soon joined me on the porch, walking out of the house and sitting down in a rocking chair. "Hard to find some free time ain't it?"_

 _I nodded. "That's for sure." I said. "How's the turnout?"_

 _He sighed. "Most of them can be released in the next few days, but a majority of them won't be able to fight again, gonna have to send them home." He shook his head. "Granted that their home is still there that is."_

 _I knew what he was talking about, some Northern brigades have completely burned whole towns down and even killed the citizens, if they had not yet been evacuated on orders or by the Confederates. Also, some of these people have lost husbands, fathers, sons and brothers. That's what I feared, God forbid if I lose my father, or my husband, or any of my brothers. I've already lost my twin, I couldn't do this again. I probably wouldn't be able to take it._

 _Dad and I looked up when we heard the sound of horses galloping. Eventually, we were able to see that it was George Pickett, my father-in-law and Andrew close behind him. I stood as did dad as they started coming to a stop, a couple men (younger enlisted soldiers) stepped forward to lead the horses to the stables as they each got off._

 _"Hey George!" My father-in-law greeted my dad, walking towards to meet him as I walked off, well, half walked and half ran, the porch to greet Andrew. He met me, not even halfway as he ran up to me and embraced me as I threw my arms around his neck as he kissed my forehead._

 _"Hey Maise." He whispered to me, "I've missed you." He said, before kissing me softly and quickly._

 _"Missed you too." I asked, before we pulled away. He offered his arm, and I accepted, as we walked back to join our fathers._

I sighed and forced myself out of bed and got dressed. My siblings had already ate and went off to school, and I grabbed a muffin for breakfast before going to get whatever chores they hadn't done before going to school, done.

I went to Rebel's stall and led him out and groomed him and then saddled him up and went to exercise him for a couple hours.

I then brought him back and unsaddled him and then placed him back in the stall, after giving him a few apple pieces. I fed him and filled up his water bowl a little bit before heading back up to the house.

Once back, I got my shower again, and dressed into something a bit more comfortable. I headed to my room to pull on a pair of dark gray leggings, and a black tank top under a light pink racerback burn out "Little miss southern belle" tank.

I would be the one to make supper tonight, as my father was working and wouldn't have enough time to cook and get ready for work, so I figured that I'd do it. At least it would turn out much better than when Jasper and I decided to make her breakfast for her birthday one time when we were 6. We asked dad to help us out, and let's just say it wasn't too pretty.

 ** _Flashback_**

 _Daddy was helping me and Jasper cook breakfast for Momma in bed, but apparently, neither of us knew how. Nor could dad._

 _"Now let's see." Daddy muttered, going through a recipe book that Momma had written out. Meanwhile, my twin and I were getting the ingredients out, but more like arguing over the flour._

 _"No we don't need flour Maisie." Jasper said, trying to put it back, while I kept trying to get it._

 _"Yes, we do." I knew that momma always used it every time she made pancakes and biscuits and the likes._

 _"No we don't"_

 _"Kids be careful." Dad said, getting out some eggs and stirring the grits._

 _I nodded at daddy, trying to get the flour back. "Yes Jaz, we do!"_

 _"No we don't!"_

 _Daddy sighed, "Alright kids, enough, and yes, we do need the flour." He told us. "Please bring it over."_

 _"Okay." Jasper relented, letting go of it, I wasn't expecting it, and stumbled a bit and the flour fell, shooting up all over the air and getting all over the floor and on both me and my brother._

 _"Oh Maisie, Jasper." Daddy sighed and picked up the flour, and took it back over the counter, muttering. "Charlotte's gonna kill me." He muttered under his breath._

 _I giggled as my twin and I played in the spilt flour, kicking it around and throwing it at each other. "Knock it off you two." He looked at us, but not even he could help from laughing at the sight of us, but momma wouldn't feel the same way. "Now hand me the flowers and stuff."_

 _We both nodded, and ran through the house and to our room to get the flowers and the crafts project we'd been working on and then back to daddy, who was putting momma's breakfast on a tray and then added that. Daddy headed towards their bedroom and Jasper and I followed behind him._

 _"Honey, the twins had an idea of making you breakfast." He said, walking in. We could see momma, but she couldn't see us just yet._

 _"Aw, that so swee- Goodness gracious George!" Momma said, catching sight of us. I giggled, looking at momma._

 _"Happy birthday momma." I grinned while Jasper smiled brightly._

 _"Hi momma."_

 _Momma didn't look amused. "Why are our twins covered in flour?" Daddy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly._

 _"They uh, they started arguing over the flour and before I knew it, the flour got dropped and went everywhere." He said. "I'll get them cleaned up."_

 _Momma nodded. "Oh, I know you are." She said. "You're also gonna clean up the mess they made, and whatever else the children get into today."_

 _Daddy sighed. "Yes dear."_

I shook my head at the memory, had to admit, it was pretty funny when you think about it, momma wasn't so amused at the time, but now, momma says it's one of her fondest memories, probably because daddy did all of her usual work for that day, even chasing after me and my twin and looking after a toddler.

I decided to put a pot roast on in the crock-pot, and that's all I needed to do for now, as I headed to my room to grabbed one of the books that daddy got me and my binder and a pen, and some highlighters and sticky notes and headed back down to the living room to get some of the stuff done. This particular book was on Civil War battles and little fights that happened here in Virginia.

If I didn't recognize something, I would go and make note of it and write down something to do further research on and go through enlistment paper records or any other kind of records, like medical. Daddy had always kept note of the names of soldiers he treated and what the injury was and what happened and where they came from, birthdate, and stuff like that, and I've found some other doctors (and sometimes nurses) in the war also kept records similar to that.

I caught sight of a passage that made me do a double take. I sighed, it was a few days before the Battle of Yellow Tavern that was also in Virginia. He was able to come see me for the weekend, but he had to leave to get where he was needed, and little did I know at the time, that would be the very last time I would ever see my husband before his death.

 ** _Flashback:_**

 _July 18, 1864_

 _I walked outside after getting dressed, not bothering to eat breakfast, I wasn't feeling that hungry, especially knowing that I would have to see Andrew off today, and I knew I wouldn't see him for months, possibly not until the war was completely over, which most of us were expecting soon, since what happened at Gettysburg, the turn of the war, with the Union victory. And none of us knew what was going to happen._

 _"Maisie, are you okay?" I heard Andrew come out of the house, dressed in full uniform. "I saw that you didn't go to breakfast."_

 _I shook my head. "I wasn't in the mood to eat. Not hungry."_

 _He seemed to piece it together. "It's because I have to leave today ain't it?" I nodded. Usually, I didn't get this upset when he had to leave, but knowing that he was leaving here to go to an actual battlefield, yeah, I couldn't help but worry about his wellbeing._

 _"Ah." He reached out and took my hand with both of his and pulled me close to him. "Maise, I'll be fine." He said. "I'll come back to you, I always have." He sighed and pulled me closer and wrapped his arms around me._

 _"I know you have." I looked up at him. "But I can't help but worry about you."_

 _He kissed me. "I know you do, and you know that I never keep the not getting injured promises, but I give you my word that I'll try not to, during anything that I go through." He kissed my forehead this time._

 _I couldn't help but smile at him. "I know." I nodded. "You try." My husband was one of the three most important men in my life, the other two being my father and twin._

 _A young enlisted man came with Andrew's horse, saddled up and ready to go. "I need to get going now, I love you, and I promise, no matter what happens, I will always, always return back to you, no matter where I am."_

 _I nodded at him. "I love you too." He kissed me again, but more slowly this time and more passion in it, that the reassuring one that he gave me a few minutes ago. Then he stepped back kissed my forehead again and mounted his horse._

 _"I'll be sure to write, and remember, I love you." He turned his horse to the road, and then made his horse gallop away, and then, he was gone._


End file.
